She turned to me and said, “Well I can just use Yelp”. Yelp gives me insights and analytics information that I need to tell me where my clients are coming from and more”.

I’m gonna be honest here:

I was totally stumped. This isn’t really something that I had given much thought.

Not because I don’t understand the true value out of owning your own website. But the fact that I hadn’t put myself in her shoes before.

As web designer, I have always felt like everybody should own their own sh%t. Simple as that. But after having this conversation with her, I felt compelled to write a blog post that addresses this question because it is a legit one.

So…. Why Should You Invest In A Website When Social Media Is Working For You?

It’s exciting right?

Social media is working out well for you…

After 3 long years of building up your Instagram account, you’ve got a hundred thousand highly engaged connections. Plus, 80% of your clients are coming from your Instagram and everything is all good in the world.

Then one day, your account is disabled for no apparent reason (like this person’s account):

Quote taken from Quora.com where someone had their IG account disabled

In a single day, all of your hard work is gone down the drain. Now, you’re pissed at the IG Peeps because they have disabled your account.

Booo to that!

Now you start thinking to yourself…What could I have done to avoid this?Why is it that the folks over at IG have disabled my account for no apparent reason?Here’s the truth of the matter:

You don’t own IG so they can do whatever they want when they want to…

Now…

Don’t get me wrong peeps, I believe social media is awesome!

I love using social networks to chat it up with folks, build relationships and even drive traffic and awareness to my brand.

But…

I am 100% an advocate for owning your your own homebase. I know that people that are having major success with social media won’t agree.

Plus, look at it this way…

Adding a website to your marketing mix adds yet another extremely powerful asset that you can use to grow your business with.

Sooo in my marketing eyes, this is a win-win situation for small biz owners.

3 Things a Website Do for You that Social Media Can’t

As an advocate for owning your own stuff aka getting a website, here are the top 5 things in my opinion that a website can do for you that social media can’t:

#1: You own your own racehorse.

James Schramko is a fella that I have been following for quite a while. A little while ago I ran across a video that he put together here via YouTube where he talks about the importance of “owning your OWN racehorse”.

What does this mean?

Well James basically talks about the risk that you take with putting all of your BEST content on someone else’s platform.

And you know what, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

It’s what that one person sadly experienced when he spent 5 years building up his Instagram following, then in one day his account went bye bye for no apparent reason.

This is the risk that you take with putting all of your stock into social media platforms ….instead of using them as mediums to drive traffic back to your OWN website (that you have 100% control over).

#2: You can monetize and sell whatever you want on your own website.

This one is a biggie! I don’t want people having control over what I sell and how much I choose to sell my products and services for.

I logged into my Twitter account one day and saw that the YouTube monetization program was trending. People were pissed off!

There were all kinds of comments from folks straight up pissed. Here’s a comment from someone on Twitter that was a bit “salty” from the changes:

YouTube Monetization Quote from Twitter Border

In case you haven’t heard, YouTube now requires you to have at least “1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months” before you can monetize your channel.

I felt a little bad for the folks that were trying to monetize their channels, but at the end of the day —-> “You don’t OWN YouTube”.

YouTube owns YouTube and just let’s us play on it…

#3: You will build a marketing tool that brings you HUGE benefits over time

Have you heard of Dave Ramsey’s “snowball effect”? If you haven’t it’s basically where something starts of super small at first, then builds up into something huge over time.

I use this metaphor because it’s exactly what your website will do.

How?

As you continue to feed it with content (blog posts, podcasts, audio files, and etc), over time it will turn into a mega-resource and repository of information that will serve your business well for years to come.

Plus….

The content that you publish to your own website will become an evergreen resource that people can come use to “find your business” through Google or social media 24/7 around the clock.

Kim

Kim, YourChicGeek is a tech savvy diva + founder of YourChicGeek.com. She is passionate about teaching small biz's how to go from unnoticed to unstoppable online using tech and digital marketing. Kim has created several online courses and DIY trainings in the Blazing Branding Academy that help small businesses flourish online. You can contact Kim to hop on a quick 15 minute call to chat about your digital marketing goals.

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Hello there! I am Kim George, YourChicGeek and I'm here to help you go from Unnoticed to Unstoppable on the web with make TECH and digital marketing. Let's Get To It!